Linger in the Background
by wallflowerxiii
Summary: AU Roxiri It wasn't as though he was waiting for the Apocalypse or anything, just for her to notice him. And...maybe that was the same thing.


**Disclaimer:** Nope, don't own it. Sue me why don't ya?

…

I take that back.

Don't sue me…

**Summary:**_(Rox__as and Kairi) It wasn't as though he was waiting for the Apocalypse or anything, just for her to notice him. And…maybe that was the same thing._

**_Linger in the Background_**

_

* * *

So here he was again._

_Clad in a black t-shirt, ripped jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes._

_No, nothing out of the ordinary here._

_And there she was again._

_Sporting a white tank top, jean shorts, and a pair of sandals._

-

He was in the back of the room, hanging, talking to friends, remembering old times. He shared a couple of laughs, cracked a couple of jokes, and inserted his own retort here and there. And everything seemed okay, for the moment.

She was in the front of the room, smiling, nodding her head, reminiscing the past. She greeted old acquaintances that she caught sight of, giggled at her friends' attempts at humor, and tried not to bring up anything to ruin the mood. Everything was fine.

-

_He knew that all he had to do was wave and call out her name, but that wouldn't prove anything. _

_Thus, he waited there, leaning against the back wall of the gym._

_And maybe he was being a tad bit stubborn. So? If she were looking for him, then she would find him. Right where he always was. Simple, really._

-

His friends didn't comment on how his gaze always lingered to the front of the room, or how he subconsciously avoided conversations dealing with the last time they had been in that very building.

But they noticed.

-

_She walked across the room in a daze, a whirlwind catastrophe of sapphire eyes, auburn red hair, and pale skin._

_All she had to do was look up, focus her eyes, and she would have seen him._

_Furthermore, she would have smiled sweetly in his direction, stumbled to that back wall, and conversed quietly with him until the last school dance ended._

_This was how he had pictured it in his mind._

_But she didn't look up._

-

Her companions didn't ask about how her smile held no happiness, or how she sometimes glanced over the shoulder of the person she was talking to so she could see the back of the room.

But they were aware of it.

-

_Perhaps if she had not ran into her beautiful blond sister only minutes before, she might not have been staring at the ground the entire time._

_She did, though._

_And after only 3 minutes of confessing and yelling and disbelief, she just didn't feel like looking up to anything anymore. She just didn't feel like it._

-

He saw her first, he always did, and just like how he had done before, he didn't call out to her, didn't wave.

Ok, so you would think he would have learned from his past mistakes and done the opposite, right?

But, no.

He wanted to know if she would notice him. He wanted to know if she still, if ever did, care.

-

_Well, while she was looking down, he was looking up._

_Somewhere at the back of his mind, something told him that she wasn't all right, that there was a reason why she wasn't meeting his stare._

_He didn't trust his instincts, however. They don't teach you to do that in high school._

_So, he had come to the conclusion that she had given up on him, that she was doing this on purpose._

_All in all, he gave up first._

-

She was facing the stage as he was facing her.

Their old principal, now ancient, wrinkly, and regretful, told everyone to find a partner and dance.

It was the last dance of the evening.

-

_Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that someone was staring at her silently begging for her to give him or her her attention._

_She didn't follow her woman's intuition, though, that wasn't what she was taught in high school._

_And as a result, they didn't meet up that night._

_They didn't. But they should've, and they could've, and they would've._

_If only._

-

He was going to wait this one out.

It wasn't as though he was waiting for the Apocalypse or anything, just for her to notice him. And…maybe that was the same thing.

So?

Blame it on the stubbornness, the persistency, or the inability to accept the fact that he had lost the only love he had ever had before even experiencing it.

Yeah, blame it on the latter.

She was going to sit this one out.

Dancing just wasn't her thing, and she was used to being the wallflower that only observed and never participated.

So?

The guilt resides on the fact that she didn't live her life to the fullest, that she drowned herself in self-pity every time she looked back on past faults, or that she had the chance to love but didn't take it.

Yea, the guilt resided on the latter.

The song was just about nearing its end as she moved across the dance floor. And at that very moment when the crowd parted and the song finished, she finally saw him, finally noticed him, finally realized that he was there all along.

And then the world ended.

* * *

**A/N: YAY! I wrote this in an hour, it was nagging at me, like all story ideas do, and so I finally gave in and wrote it.**

_**Woot!**_

_**REVIEW!**_

_**REVIIEWWW! **_

Monkey-woman 108

­­­


End file.
